Classic angel food cake is naturally casein free and can be a delicious gluten-free cake too. If you remember cardboard, spongey, store-bought angel food cake, this is nothing like that. Homemade angel food cake is moist, tender and definitely worth trying! When strawberries are not in season, try lemon curd, chocolate whipped cream with chocolate shavings, or an almond glaze.
If you are still fearful of making your first gluten-free angel food cake, never fear! I wrote a guest post full of step-by-step photos, How to Bake a Gluten Free Angel Food Cake, for Gluten Free Cooking School.
ANGEL FOOD CAKE
1 cup gluten free flour ( I used 1/4 cup millet flour, 1/4 cup tapioca flour, 1/4 cup white rice flour and 1/4 cup sweet rice flour to achieve a fluffy, light texture)
1 teaspoon xanthan gum
12 egg whites, room temperature (to maximize volume of egg whites)
1 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 Tablespoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
DIRECTIONS:
Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Separate egg whites in a stainless steel bowl and let them come to room temperature. In a separate medium bowl, sift gluten free flour, salt, xanthan gum, and 3/4 cup of sugar. Beat the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar. Beat until the egg whites form soft peaks. Beat in the other reserved 3/4 cup of sugar about 3 Tablespoons at a time. Beat until stiff peaks form. Slowly fold in flour mixture about 1/4 cup at a time. Once the flour mixture is combined, fold in the vanilla. Slowly pour the batter into a tube pan (preferably one where the inside lifts out) and spread the batter evenly. Run a knife through the cake to eliminate any air bubbles. Bake for 50-55 minutes until top is golden and sides begin to pull away. Cool for 10 minutes. Run the edges of a knife along the pan and pull out the insert to the tube pan. Run a knife along the bottom of the insert and invert onto a cake plate. Serve with topping of choice!
Angel Food Cake is a great make ahead recipe.
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Posted on March 27th, 2008 by Natalie
Filed under: Cake Recipes
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[...] your ingredients and Preheat Your Oven for 325 degrees. For proportions see full recipe for angel food cake at Gluten Free Mommy. Separate egg whites in a stainless steel bowl and let them come to room [...]
I’m suddenly having the hugest craving for angel food cake.
Yours looks amazing.
Natalie, that looks so delicious. I do believe I’ve found David’s and my birthday cake =)
Natalie ~ I totally forgot about angel food cake. This looks SO good. Definitely on my to-make list. My daughter used to call this angel fairy cake. I wonder if she will still call it that when I make it?
SM
I love this recipe and so many others like it – I have one very difficult problem. Many of my gluten intolerant patients are also sugar intolerant (ADD and autistic children for example) what would any of you recommend in the place of sugar? Splenda and Aspartame do not even ever figure into anyone’s diet ever! I usually use agave nectar and have made wonderful sherbets without dairy or sugar but I am finding it difficult to find a “healthy” sweetener to replace sugar.
I love angel food cake. It’s just such a light treat.
The cake looks delicious. Have you ever tried freezing it?
tickledr, would evaporated cane juice work for your patients?
Natalie,
This looks delicious! I want it so bad, but am worried about my sugar. Do you think powdered stevia would work instead? I doubt it and I bet it’d get that “stevia” bitter flavor…? I don’t think agave would work since it would change the consistency. Ideas? I love angle food cake, but it made me really sick (fast sugar spike, crash, and subsequent really bad hypoglycemia) previously. I guess I”m in the same boat as tickeldr
thanks! xoxo, Cindalou
Yum! I am going to have to try this recipe ASAP! Strawberry shortcake is my favorite dessert!
[...] A couple weeks ago I wanted to get some good gluten free recipes. (This angel food cake looks divine!) I Googled for them and hit the jackpot. It always amazes me how people in the [...]
My son made me an Angel Food cake for my birthday last summer (he was 11 at the time). I didn’t have to make my own gluten and dairy free birthday cake. He earned major points! What a sweetie! Yours looks delicious. I always have to fight the urge to lick the computer screen when I see your food photos…
As far as less sugar sweetener goes, how about xylitol. It is a birch derived “sweetener” you can find in many health food stores. It has a lower glycemic index, and is supposed to have many other health benefits (anti-yeast infection, anti-bacterial, etc).
I am really anxious to try this! Angel food cake was my absolute favorite growing up! yum!
[...] hate to cut this post short…but I hear the oven timer…. the Angel Food cake (Thanks, Natalie) is done for a friend’s newly diagnosed daughter (tomorrow) and our fresh [...]
[...] me a box of chocolate biscotti (Yes, Virginia…there is a Santa!) and I brought her some Angel Food Cake (And, Virginia… even better, there is a [...]
Those of us who need to eat GF must also get familiar with glycemic load (GL) values to help with sugar spikes and crashes from all grains and sweeteners. This means never to eat moderate to high glycemic-index (GI) value carbohydrates by themselves. Always include – 1) fiber, 2) fat, or 3) protein along with your ONE slice of GF cake (or GF bread or GF muffin, et al) to blunt the expected rise in blood glucose, i.e., whole fruit with some good fat and/or protein.
Hi there- I tried this recipe and it came out beautifully! My almost 1 year old loved it – none of us have gluten problems, but I want to introduce her to wheat and gluten slowly because of the allergen risk. Question – can this flour mix be used for cupcakes? Thanks so much!
Fructose has a low GI—no crash & burn, less sensitivity. It’s sweeter than sugar. I use 2/3 of the recommended suger. Howerever, because the GI is low, the body doesn’t feel sated/full and overeating can be a concern. Further fruit sugar isn’t stored as readily by the body, and overindulgence will show on the thighs quickly.
A sweet is still a sweet and needs to be eaten in small doses!
My family and I LOVE this recipe! I have made it twice…for birthday cakes. I make a marshmallow frosting/”whip cream”…and use the sweetened strawberries. Talk about sugar overload, but what the hay, it is for a birthday!
I made this and it turned out ok – not great though. It rose to the top of the pan but still had more of a denser texture – not light and airy like I’m used to angel food cake being. And it tasted a little eggy. I’m trying to figure out what I did wrong. Maybe because I used store-bought egg whites instead of separating them?
Trying to contact you to get permission to reprint this recipe. Email does not work? Could you please contact me? I love this recipe.
Thanks!
[...] Farrah – Yes, I had your poster. And yes, I was a fan of the show (the early years, before Angels came and went). You were an Angel, so it’s only fitting we honor you with a Gluten Free Angel Food cake recipe [...]
Update: I tried this recipe again, this time making mini angel food cakes in a muffin pan and a mini fluted pan. I served them at a 4th of July family cookout (with the obligatory “they’re gluten free so if they taste weird to you, I won’t be offended” since my taste buds are a little skewed now), and people loved them! This time I used real eggs instead of the carton egg whites, and let them come fully to room temperature. Amazing what happens when you actually follow directions correctly. They don’t taste eggy, and the texture is a bit lighter too. Thanks again for the recipe – I love being able to enjoy one of my favorite pre-GF summer treats!
Angel Food Cake is my b-day cake, so this year’s GF diet meant a teensy change. My mum always made the traditional ones so this is my first ever angel food cake.
Found your recipe, read ALL the instructions/comments, made one.
BUT:
– I couldn’t find Sweet White Rice Flour (have since located it, in the Japanese food section of a major supermarket.
– I cannot find millet flour anywhere
Sooo, substituted general GF flour. Followed the instructions to use real eggs, not tinned egg whites.
Everything went great. BIG FLUFFY cake in the oven. Only thing is that when I gently removed it to cool, it flopped with an unfortunate fold in the middle. It looked sorta funny but importantly it tasted great. We served it to some seriously picky older neighbours without telling them it was GF and there were a lot of yum yum sounds.
Perhaps, for those of us that don’t know these things, there could be a quick comment that angel food cakes are traditionally hung upside down on top of bottles (still in their tins) to cool? Mum told me after the flop incident that’s what she always did to avoid the flops.
Still, for a woman who’s not had access to an oven or baking equipment since going GF, who’s been in Morocco (fairly gluten heavy on the patisseries there) suffering the sight of so many baked things she can’t eat and who’s currently indulging in some serious baking whilst visiting Mum:
Gluten Free Mommy’s recipes are 5-star. thank you thank you thank you
Emily, Thanks for the idea on the muffin pans. I was wondering how to do it w/o an actual Angel Food Cake Pan with the tall sides! I filled 12 muffin pans 1/2 full and used the rest in a my plain old sides-come-off bundt pan. In the oven now…will report back later on outcome!
PS The batter tastes divine.
Out-of-the-oven update: Everything came out great with the angel “muffins” not exploding out of the pans like I thought might happen. On the next go around, I might just pipe out the batter decoratively straight to a silpat sheet as in meringues since they don’t expand much and might cook a bit more evenly. I used 1/4 c. potato flour in stead of millet and 1/2 c. white rice four omitting the sweet rice flour b/c I didn’t want to go out for these. What does the millet contribute?
Now I’m going out to visit a friend in a nursing home and guess where the muffins are going?
Love yer cake and eat it too is my motto!
Cheers,
C
(need not publish this). Thank you so much for these recipes, and may God bless you.